Ulrich Seidl: Über das Leben, die Liebe und den Tod

Eye Filmmuseum presents Ulrich Seidl—Über das Leben, die Liebe und den Tod, the first exhibition in the Netherlands about the renowned Austrian filmmaker. Featuring a wealth of early, little-known and newly commissioned (film) works, the exhibition confronts visitors with the lives of seemingly ordinary individuals, people who try to make something of life in a late-capitalist society in which meaning has been replaced by consumerism. Seidl does so in a way that holds up a mirror to us as modern Western individuals. An exhibition about moral ambiguity and disorientation, but also about love. 

In the exhibition, Seidl’s ongoing exploration of the condition humaine takes centre stage. He has an interest in the everyday and those who fall specifically outside the bounds of daily order. Seidl’s work is often described as unsettling because it confronts viewers with their own preconceptions about how people live, what they think, how they furnish their homes, how they entertain themselves, and how they seek a sense of security, each in their own way. Seidl: “What I try to do is to look behind the beautified surface and to go into a private space, and that’s often uncomfortable and may look different than what people would like it to look like.” Seidl presents the complexity of the world in all its moral ambiguity, resisting black-and-white thinking and refraining from passing judgement. By creating a sense of discomfort, he hopes that the visitor will question their own moral compass.

Another way in which Seidl achieves a degree of disorientation is by positioning his work at the intersection of documentary and fiction. Research into real people, places and situations forms the basis of his work, which he then interweaves with fictional elements and characters. Non-professional actors play themselves in their own environments, while professional actors are invited to enter this context and improvise. Moreover, from his earliest works onwards, Seidl has employed so-called tableaux: a distinctive hallmark of Seidl's visual language. These are tightly composed scenes in which characters gaze silently and motionless into the camera, further heightening a sense of unease. Staging and reality merge seamlessly in Seidl’s work. What is real, and what is fiction? 

Ulrich Seidl—Über das Leben, die Liebe und den Tod is Jaap Guldemond's farewell exhibition. Guldemond shaped the artistic direction of Eye’s exhibition programme from the opening of its building in Amsterdam-Noord (2012–2024) and curated a total of 40 exhibitions for Eye.

Films, talks & events  
The exhibition includes screenings of all films from Ulrich Seidl’s filmography, with several 35mm prints drawn from the Eye collection. This marks a first: never before has a complete retrospective of the Austrian filmmaker’s work been presented in the Netherlands. A series of Eye on Art specials will delve deeper into themes within Seidl’s oeuvre.

About Ulrich Seidl
Ulrich Seidl (Vienna, 1952) is a filmmaker, photographer and theatre-maker. He has directed around twenty feature-length and short films. In the 1990s he won awards for his documentaries Good News (1990), Losses to Be Expected (Mit Verlust ist zu rechnen, 1992), Animal Love (Tierische Liebe, 1995) and Models (1998). In 2001, his first ‘fiction film’, Dog Days (Hundstage), received an award at the Venice Film Festival. Almost all of his subsequent films premiered at major film festivals including Import Export (2007) and Paradise: Love (Paradies: Liebe, 2012) in Cannes. His most recent work, the two-part Wicked Games – Rimini Sparta (Böse Spiele – Rimini Sparta, 2023), was screened at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Seidl has also directed theatre productions such as Vater Unser (2004, Volksbühne Berlin) and Böse Buben / Fiese Männer (2011, Wiener Festwochen) and regularly presents his photographic work. 

Ulrich Seidl is currently working on his next international feature film, Distances. (Director and producer: Ulrich Seidl; co-producers: Philippe Bober (France/Germany) and Albert Serra (Spain). Filming is scheduled to begin in early 2027.